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  Systems and methods for crew interaction and coordination using portable electronic data storage and display devicesUSPTO Application #: 20060041340Title: Systems and methods for crew interaction and coordination using portable electronic data storage and display devices Abstract: To facilitate crew coordination and interaction using portable electronic data storage and display devices, automated and interactive capabilities allow any of several crew members to forward information regarding a page of data which the crew member has selected using the user interface of his or her portable electronic data storage and display device to the portable electronic data storage and display device of any other crew member or all other crew members particularly those who, due to task loading, may be unable to immediately employ the data manipulation and control functions resident in their own portable electronic data storage and display device. Data thus displayed is available for independent or interactive manipulation as though it had been locally rather than remotely selected. (end of abstract) Agent: Oliff & Berridge, PLC - Alexandria, VA, US Inventor: Rolf Stefani USPTO Applicaton #: 20060041340 - Class: 701004000 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Data Processing: Vehicles, Navigation, And Relative Location, Vehicle Control, Guidance, Operation, Or Indication, Aeronautical Vehicle, Altitude Or Attitude Control Or Indication The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060041340. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of Invention [0002] This invention is directed to systems and methods for crew interaction and coordination in task-loaded environments using portable electronic data storage and display devices. [0003] 2. Description of Related Art [0004] Portable electronic data storage and display devices, such as, for example, electronic notebooks and like handheld devices, present a tremendous capacity to provide a user with readily available information that was previously found only in large, cumbersome technical or reference libraries of printed publications. Use of these portable electronic data storage and display devices in many highly task-loaded environments is becoming commonplace. The capabilities of such devices are limited only by their internal data storage capacities and specific functionality for manipulating pages of data resident in the device. Many of these portable electronic data storage and display devices in common use today are oriented to specific sets of tasks or specific usable purposes. One such example is the Electronic Flight Bag, or "EFB," which is gaining wide acceptance with individual cockpit flight crew members, particularly in large commercial airline, military transport and general aviation aircraft with multi-place cockpits. [0005] In specifically task-oriented operations, these devices, in addition to their capacity for storage and display of tremendous technical or reference libraries of information, provide a platform to enable other tasks to be automated. In EFBs, for example, checklists are made interactive and other data form fill type needs such as performing weight and balance and/or performance calculations as will be referred to in greater detail below, may be provided. [0006] Conventionally, each member of a commercial airline, military transport or general aviation aircraft cockpit flight crew carries with them, into the cockpit of the aircraft, a large "flight bag," which is a catalog case full of normal procedural and emergency procedures checklists, aircraft operating manuals including tables of operating limitations, domestic and international navigational charts (as appropriate), and/or other pertinent or required inflight information publications and the like. Often, the individual cockpit flight crew member's routine includes pre-arranging selected portions of this extensive library of all required printed materials in an anticipated order of need. As such, specific references required for pre-flight, start, taxi, takeoff, departure, inflight/enroute navigation, arrival, approach, landing, taxi, shutdown and postflight are readily available substantially in the order in which it is anticipated that they will be required. [0007] Special and/or emergency procedures checklists and publications are often segregated and kept in a separate portion of each individual cockpit flight crew member's flight bag. Those publications to which quick access may be required during critical phases of flight are often segregated in this manner in order to minimize the time necessary for the individual cockpit flight crew member to access the required information, thereby coincidentally minimizing the amount of time which the individual cockpit flight crew member's attention is diverted from concentrating principally on controlling the aircraft. [0008] Additionally, there are many repetitive tasks which often require the recall, review and verification of individually mandated checklists in order to ensure and record completion. Also, individual cockpit flight crew members must routinely fill out and/or accept a number of standard forms for each flight. Each of these repetitive or routine tasks requires significant interaction between individual cockpit flight crew members in order to ensure task completion. [0009] Further, based on mandated requirements for control of an aircraft, there are times, during certain critical phases of flight, when an individual flight crew member is unable to remove, and, in fact, is proscribed from removing, his or her hands from the controls of the aircraft. Thus, for example, it is at times impossible or at least very difficult for the cockpit flight crew member to access separately required publications from the reference library of materials carried onboard the aircraft. In such instances, a typical flight crew coordination scenario involves a pilot in control of the aircraft at the specific time requesting of another cockpit flight crew member the specific publication required for that phase of flight. The cockpit flight crew member to whom the request is directed then selects the appropriate publication from any available library of references (his or her own, that of the pilot in control, or that of another cockpit flight crew member), opens the selected publication to the correct page (or folds the chart to display the currently required information) and then manually places the publication within the view of the pilot in control of the aircraft for his or her review and use. [0010] Against this conventional set of circumstances, the use of microprocessor based portable electronic data storage and display devices, such as, for example, EFBs, is becoming more and more popular in commercial airline, large transport, and general aviation. The introduction of EFBs into the cockpits of commercial airline, multi-place military transport and other aircraft provides an automated and interactive library of publications in electronic format to replace the conventional flight bag full of checklists, charts, publications and the like. As with the previous printed library of publications, each individual cockpit flight crew member carries all of the required reference materials with regard to the operation and navigation of the aircraft; however, now these materials are contained in an electronic notepad or like portable electronic data storage and display device. [0011] There are, however, certain procedural modifications which the introduction of these devices mandate, or separately facilitate. It should be understood that, in a multi-crew member cockpit, individual cockpit flight crew members' EFBs are commonly mounted on the outboard sides of each principal flight crew member's aircraft control station, e.g., on the windshield rail or console to the left of the left or pilot's station, and in a like location to the right of the right or co-pilot's station. This placement, it should be recognized, places an individual cockpit flight crew member's EFB out of reach and/or view of the other cockpit flight crew member. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0012] A system and method is needed to allow an individual cockpit flight crew member not exercising immediate control over the aircraft during a given phase of flight to be able to interact with the EFBs of the other flight crew members, particularly the EFB of the individual cockpit flight crew member who is in immediate control of the aircraft and therefore must keep his or her hands on the aircraft controls during the given phase of flight. This capability should closely replicate the conventional flight crew interaction and coordination where a co-pilot, for example, produces, selects, and provides to the pilot the required reference publication for the pilot's immediate use. [0013] Additionally, a system and method could be advantageously provided which provides increase capability for individual cockpit flight crew members to interact. For example, when an individual cockpit flight crew member displays a checklist, which could be configured within the portable electronic data storage and display device to be interactive, each of the other individual cockpit flight crew members may benefit from having the same checklist for that required phase of flight automatically displayed. With such capability, the entire cockpit flight crew can interact in a manner whereby each individual cockpit flight crew member can execute a certain step of a checklist and then verify completion of that step in the task in a manner such that the status of the checklist is consistently updated and supplied to each of the other individual cockpit flight crew members. [0014] Embodiments of this invention provide systems and methods for crew interaction and coordination in task-loaded environments, such as, for example, cockpit flight crew coordination and interaction in the cockpits of commercial airline, military transport and general aviation aircraft with multi-place cockpits, using portable electronic data storage and display devices. [0015] Embodiments of this invention may provide an interactive capability to allow any of several crew members the ability to forward information from one individual's portable electronic data storage and display device, such as, for example, an EFB, for display on the portable electronic data storage and display device of any or all other crew members with whose portable electronic data storage and display devices the first portable electronic data storage and display device is in communication through a data transfer connection. [0016] Embodiments of this invention may provide a method for cockpit flight crew coordination of EFB activity and data manipulation across a cockpit-installed private local area network. [0017] Embodiments of this invention may provide systems and methods to perform Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) review with information on cockpit flight crew member electronic interaction, for example, being recorded, stored and made available for a number of beneficial purposes such as, for example, efficiency analysis, procedures training, event reconstruction, mishap investigation or any other like beneficial purpose. A capability may be provided to log and archive all data manipulation and transfer steps internal to and between the EFBs of individual cockpit flight crew members. [0018] Embodiments of this invention may provide a specific capability to facilitate flight crew interaction and coordination using automated tools and data communications onboard aircraft when using electronic publications, charts and other like references. [0019] Embodiments of this invention may further provide an automated and interactive method for causing information that is displayed on one individual crew member's portable electronic data storage and display device, e.g., a co-pilot's EFB, to be selectively displayed on the portable electronic data storage and display device of any other individual crew member, or broadcast to the portable electronic data storage and display devices of the entire crew at the same time, e.g., a pilot's EFB (and any, or all, other crew members' EFBs, if desired) with all necessary data as required, without the need of receiving a data request through the user interface of the second portable electronic data storage and display device. This is particularly useful when, for example, a pilot requires data but is unable to remove his or her hands from the controls of an aircraft to specifically and physically initiate the data request through manipulation of the input interface on his or her own portable electronic data storage and display device. [0020] Embodiments of this invention may provide systems and methods whereby any flight crew member can forward or "PUSH" information regarding the data reference page displayed on his or her EFB individually to any, or alternatively to all, other cockpit flight crew member(s). [0021] It should be appreciated that not only can an individual crew member select a static page of data to be displayed, but additionally any individual crew member can initiate crew member interaction for, for example, executing checklists, filling out forms or the like, by selecting a dynamically interactive data reference page, which not only displays certain required data but also initiates an interactive routine whereby steps in a checklist, or blanks in a form, are provided to be completed, and that individual crew member can then forward or "PUSH" the information regarding that interactive data reference page displayed on his or her portable electronic data storage and display device individually to any, or alternatively to all, other crew member(s). In this manner, individual inputs to such interactive data reference pages by any individual crew member will be displayed for the entire crew to review on each of their individual portable electronic data storage and display devices. [0022] In various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention, individual cockpit flight crew members can select from among the thousands of pages of information available in electronic form in that individual cockpit flight crew member's EFB. The individual flight crew member, having selected a specific page of data, can then, using the systems and methods according to this invention, forward information regarding the specific page of data which that cockpit flight crew member is viewing across the cockpit-installed private local area network to the EFB display device of one or more of the other individually selectable cockpit flight crew members. The systems and methods according to this invention then provide the capability for the receiving EFB to process the information provided and, in response to the input from a remote transmitting EFB, display on the receiving EFB, the same page of data that is being viewed at the remote transmitting EFB. Continue reading... Full patent description for Systems and methods for crew interaction and coordination using portable electronic data storage and display devices Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Systems and methods for crew interaction and coordination using portable electronic data storage and display devices patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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